"Sheeple" refers to people as sheep, who blindly follow direction without thinking for themselves. The phrase "Wake up Sheeple!" has been used in xkcd other times. In this comic, each person on the train considers themself to be an individual mind, and everyone around them as "sheeple." Ironically, although each of them thinks about how individual they are, they are all collectively thinking exactly the same thing. The comic can also be taken as a warning to not assume that you have more consciousness than someone else, since for all you know they could think the same about you.

Ayn Rand was a Russian-born American novelist and activist whose most famous books include, Atlas Shrugged, Anthem, and The Fountainhead. She developed a philsophy known as Objectivism, which promotes individual fulfillment (or so-called "rational self-interest") at the expense of collective goals and undertakings. Sheeple coordinates with Ayn Rand's novel, Anthem, set in the distant future in which the word "I" has been abolished and the "evils" of the communal values have created a new dark age.

A possible further irony can be found in the title text. Rand enthusiasts would seek individualism and independence from social pressures; however, a convention could be interpreted as a social collective of people who have similar interests in a subject. These ideas would seem to be opposites of each other.

I find another possible humor in tile text: Ironically, Rand fans would find the concept of a collective rather revolting. A convention is in essence a gathering of everyone who has an interest in a subject, and is thus an "average of averages" (to quote Rand herself) on the respective subject. Fans who take Rand's philosophy as intended would probably find amassing themselves with others in a social hodge-podge of people without much function, mindless discussion, and re-iterating the ideas of someone else, to be against Rand's theory of Objectivism... Unless their Libertarians, of course. Jinx 20:31, 11 April 2014 (UTC)

I wonder if this was the same train that blew the Taggart tunnel... Nemo 14:46, 24 April 2014 (UTC)

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